A storm 1932

This painting, 'A Storm', was made by René Magritte, and even though we don't know the exact date, we can still imagine how it came into being, shifting and emerging through trial and intuition. I sympathize with Magritte, here. What was he thinking when he made this? It’s not a storm that I know, the shadows are too neat. The paint is thinly applied. He's using these blocks to create a stage, and these fluffy clouds are the actors! Look at the shadow that each block casts, sharply defining each one. It’s like he’s saying: what is real, and what is imagined? This is so in line with his wider practice, playing with the ambiguity of images. Magritte would have known de Chirico, and you can see that influence in his stage-like setting. Ultimately artists are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring one another’s creativity. In this way, painting embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations over fixed readings.